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After being accepted, Virgil’s life didn’t suddenly become perfect, and wonderful, and utopian. Obviously. There were good days, bad days, and days in between, though there were more good days now than there were in the past.
Today was a bad day.
Curled up on a counter, Virgil glared at anything in sight as his music blared through his headphones. Roman tried to talk to him, but he just grumbled and turned his music higher - there’s no way he’d be able to handle social interaction right now.
Eventually, though, his volume got loud enough that even his music was making things worse. Without so much as a wave to the other core sides gathered in the kitchen, he sunk out.
Appearing in his room, Virgil practically threw himself directly onto the nearest un-chairlike surface. He could feel the comforting familiarity of his room surround him, and he turned his music down to a still loud, but less overwhelming volume. He focused on his breathing for a few minutes, trying to make things at least a little better, even if he knew he couldn’t make his anxiety levels improve enough to be considered ‘good’, and eventually, he started to calm down a bit.
So, of course, that was when someone decided to pop into his room.
Virgil grit his teeth. “Why.”
Deceit held his hands up in mock surrender - at least, as well as he could while holding something to his chest at the same time. “I can explain!”
“Then start explaining.”
“Well, I’m quite aware of how little you enjoy being around me nowadays-”
“Gee, understatement much?-”
“-And quite frankly,” Deceit continued, “I don’t exactly weep tears of joy over this lovely bit of information, I’ll have you know. However, I do still pay attention to you sometimes, Virgil, and I’m not an idiot.” He glanced briefly at the Fam-ILY card from Patton.
Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Those three aren’t idiots either, you know.” Deceit raised an eyebrow in return. “I’m serious. They aren’t.”
“A bit slow on the uptake, though, you have to admit.”
Virgil scowled. “Well. Okay, maybe sometimes, ” he allowed.
Deceit grinned. “So glad you agree.” He waved his hand dismissively, then struggled to readjust his grip on the droopy purple thing in his arms so it wouldn’t fall. “Right, anyway, back to what I was saying before-”
Virgil squinted. “What is that?”
“I’m getting to it, Virgil.” Deceit sighed. “Anyway, I’m not going to rely on your new friends’ ability to help you on-” Deceit cast a quick glance over Virgil- “-days like this, because if I’m being honest over here,” he said, emphasizing the word as if honesty was a curse, “I’m surprised it took you this long to start hiding, and it’s not like they can tell how you feel when you’re hiding, can they?”
Virgil’s scowl deepened.
“But I suppose that’s irrelevant for now,” Deceit continued. “As I was saying before I got off track, since I’m not going to wait for them to give you help exactly how you need it, combined with my… distaste, we’ll call it, for your distaste for me, I figured I should offer this as… sort of a symbol of a truce? I’m suggesting a truce between us - not going back to being all buddy-buddy, of course, just lowering our levels of hostility toward each other - and to show I mean it, I’m giving you this. If you want it, of course.” He handed over the gift to Virgil, who reached out for it gingerly.
“I mean… I guess I’ll… hear you out, or whatever,” Virgil muttered. His hands clasped tight around the gift, and he took it from Deceit’s hands.
…Only to immediately drop it on the floor.
“Oh, dear, if you hated the idea that much, why didn’t you just say so?” Deceit drawled.
“Why is it heavy?” Virgil hissed, lifting it back up off the floor and getting a better look at it. He frowned, unfolding the square of fabric to reveal…
“It’s weighted,” Deceit explained. “For comfort on days like this. The weights are stitched in on the inside, but the thread was going to show through on the outside no matter what, so I decided to make it the colours associated with people you care about.”
Virgil raised an eyebrow, running a hand along it. “It’s so soft,” he marveled. “What’s with the pink stitching?”
“That’s supposed to be Thomas. You know, with that Steven Universe shirt of his?” Deceit tried to suppress a smile. “And yes, I went on a gloveless clothes shopping adventure for that, I do hope you appreciate my hard work.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Sure. And what’s up with the yellow stitching?”
Deceit stilled. “It’s just there to show who made it,” he explained in a tone more reminiscent to pulling teeth than anything else, “And it’s barely there, especially compared to the other colours.”
Virgil gave a short laugh. “If I keep looking, will I find any green?”
“No.” Deceit paused. “But I do have green thread if there ever comes a day you want there to be some.”
“Don’t get your hopes up about it.” Virgil looked at the sweater in his hands - because that’s what the gift was, a sweater - and tilted his head, considering. His expression didn’t give much away, but Deceit could still tell that Virgil liked the sweater.
“Well?” Deceit prompted. “Are you willing to set aside our old grievances enough for us to have a civilized conversation on occasion?”
Virgil set the sweater down beside him. “I think-”
“Virgil!” Roman rose up, already talking. Virgil scowled at the very sudden, and very loud, interruption. “I know you probably wanted to be left alone, but I just had to come check on you, make sure there aren’t any monsters you need defeated-” He took in the scene in front of him - a clearly annoyed Virgil with Deceit in front of him, presumably having been attempting a conversation with Virgil - and decided to approach this situation The Roman Way.
Roman pulled out his sword, pointing it at Deceit threateningly. “Begone, Lies And Dolls! I am not entirely sure what you’re doing with Virgil here, but I’m sure it is nefarious and I will not stand for it!”
“Then by all means, take a seat,” Deceit drawled. “Excellent deduction skills as always, Roman.”
“Oh, thank y- hey!”
Virgil covered his face with his hands, muffling a groan. “I had it handled, Roman.”
“I’m sure you did, Edgar Allen Woe, but what kind of prince would I be if I left you to defeat the villain on your own?” Virgil rolled his eyes.
“Well,” Deceit started, “This entire interaction has been lovely, but I really must be going now, I can’t imagine what… wonderful… things Remus has been getting up to in my absence.” He grimaced. “Farewell, goodbye, and other similar statements.” With that, he sunk out.
With the supposed ‘threat’ gone, Roman turned his focus to Virgil. “Are you alright? Truly, I mean?”
Virgil turned his scowl on Roman. “I’m fine,” he spat. “And once you’re gone and I’m alone again like I intended when I came to my room, I’ll be even better.”
Roman, thankfully used to Virgil’s bad days by now, accepted the answer for what it was, and sank out with a quieter-than-usual “Alright,” much to Virgil’s relief.
Virgil threw himself backwards, into a lying position, and blinked in surprise when he felt the sweater beneath him. “Oh, right,” he muttered to himself. He adjusted his position to further examine the sweater, and huffed out a small breath, smiling minutely.
The next day was a bit better, and so was the day after that, but a few days later Virgil had yet another less-than-ideal day. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite a bad day, but Virgil didn’t want to risk it. He groaned, scanning his room for anything that might help, and froze when his eyes landed on a purple bundle with colourful stitching. Virgil tilted his head, considering, then shrugged off his normal patchwork hoodie and quickly pulled the new sweater on. He was pleased to discover it had thumb holes, and noted that it felt slightly baggier than what he normally wore.
Tugging the sleeves down to cover his hands (and stick his thumbs through the holes), Virgil flipped the hood up onto his head and oh, the hood is also weighted, that’s a pleasant surprise-
Virgil let out a long, drawn out breath, feeling the comfort of the pressure surrounding him, and sunk out into the common area.
When Patton caught sight of him, his face brightened. “Virgil! Good to see you, how are you?”
Virgil gave a half-smile and a shrug. “Bit worse than yesterday, but better than a few days ago, I guess.”
“Good! I’m glad.” Patton gasped. “And I love your new look! Is this a one-time thing or…?”
“Uh…” Virgil frowned. “Maybe just every now and then, I think. It’s nice, but…” He grinned. “Can’t keep up my dark colour palette with this sweater, can I?”
Patton laughed. “I guess not!”
“You most certainly can keep up that edgy persona of yours though,” Roman added, “With all those stitches all around. Tell me, are they actually keeping on patches, or did you just sew a bunch of shapes into it for the aesthetic?”
“That’s for me to know, and for you to wonder, Princey,” Virgil shot back. “And besides, I didn’t add the stitching myself.”
“Oh? Then where’d it come from?” Roman leaned closer to get a better look.
“Where did the rest of the sweater come from?” Virgil asked in response, avoiding answering the question.
“I don’t know-” Roman scowled. “-It isn’t my sweater!”
Virgil grinned again. “Then I guess you’ll just have to wonder forever.”
Roman’s scowl deepened, but it was clear he was just put-out by the non-answers rather than being actually upset. “Why are you being so difficult today?”
“You’ll just have to wonder that forever, as well.”
Roman squawked in indignation, and Virgil grinned. He figured Deceit was probably somewhere nearby, within hearing range but out of sight, like usual, and hoped he could tell what Virgil was trying to silently communicate by wearing the sweater out where the other core sides could see him.
Things weren’t fixed, and they definitely weren’t perfect, but… they were going to get better. At least a little bit. And really, that’s all anyone could ask for, isn’t it?